WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas — Warning: The following article contains graphic language.
A man was detained Saturday night after White Settlement police found him in a car with a dead person they believe was a hit-and-run victim he struck in Dallas earlier in the evening.
According to a press release from the White Settlement Police Department, officers initially responded to a Jack in the Box parking lot in the 8700 block of West Freeway near I-30 on a welfare check call. They said the call, received at 11:13 p.m., reported a driver slumped over the steering wheel of a Kia Forte with "extensive front-end, hood and windshield damage."
While searching for the vehicle, an arrest affidavit obtained by WFAA details, officers found what appeared to be two human legs in different areas around the accident.
The affidavit additionally details that the caller from Jack in the Box further told police a man had walked inside, covered in blood, asking for a phone charger.
Upon arriving at the scene, police said, an officer found the vehicle and noticed a human body in the front passenger seat next to the passed-out driver. According to the affidavit, the officer saw the body laying upside down in the seat, with its head laying on the floorboard and both legs missing below the knees.
The driver has since been identified as 31-year-old Nestor Joel Lujan Flores of Arlington.
"As the officer shined his flashlight in the vehicle looking for alcoholic beverages that might be in plain view, stuff like that, he noticed what appeared to be a human body in the passenger side of the vehicle," said White Settlement Police Chief Christopher Cook in a Sunday press conference about the incident.
After seeing the body in the car, Cook said the officer who arrived on the scene had the Lujan Flores step out of the car for questioning. A blood search warrant obtained by police detailed that the suspect had slurred, thick-tongued speech and red, watery eyes with drooping eyelids at the scene. It also stated he was unbalanced, swaying and heavy-footed.
According to the blood search warrant, Lujan Flores told police he was waiting for his brother to give him a ride.
"The results are not back," Cook said Monday when asked Monday about the status of the blood test that police administered to the Lujan Flores at the scene. "We'll provide that to the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. But I can tell you that once we placed him in the back seat of our car, the officer commented that it smelled like a brewery in the back seat of his patrol car."
Medics were called to the scene and confirmed that the person in the passenger's side of the car was deceased, according to police.
The victim was identified by both the arrest affidavit and medical examiner as 45-year-old Terry Ivory.
One of Ivory's sisters told WFAA that all he had was his siblings. He was unmarried. He didn't have any children.
According to his sister, Ivory was experiencing homelessness at the time of his death.
According to WSPD, Lujan Flores told police that he thought he had struck a deer in Dallas, then continued to drive to the parking lot about 40 miles away.
Police said he never alerted first responders about the incident.
Based on evidence, officials said they believed that the victim in the passenger seat was a pedestrian who was struck by the vehicle. Police said they believed the impact of the crash was so severe, the pedestrian was thrown inside of the vehicle and came to rest in the passenger seat.
"Our theory last night was it appeared, based upon the significant damage to the front of the vehicle, that this was a high-speed crash," Cook said. "There was significant intrusion into the front of the vehicle, the hood area, and most of the passenger side of the windshield was completely caved in and gone. So, we believe that the driver struck a pedestrian somewhere in our region, and that impact forced the pedestrian inside the vehicle and ended up came to rest in the passenger seat. Very unfortunate that he did not realize that this was a human being – to stop, render aid and call for help."
Investigators said they believed the vehicle arrived at the restaurant parking lot between 8 and 9 p.m. before the 911 call came in shortly after 11 p.m.
White Settlement police contacted officials in other cities on Sunday to figure out where the crash happened. In another social media post, police said they were notified by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office about a crash on the westbound I-30 service road near Cockrell Hill Road.
Officials said there were human remains near the scene of the Dallas crash.
"The incident they’re working, they located some possible body parts in the roadway there," Cook said. "So, based upon that information, we do believe that it could be connected."
The affidavit details that, based on the blood patterns on the roadway in Dallas, the Kia is believed to have been traveling westbound on the I-30 service road when it collided into the victim crossing the road.
The Dallas County Sheriff's Office is now investigating the incident due to the belief that the crash happened in Dallas.
"The impact was so severe that it knocked some of the clothing off of the victim’s body and severed some portions of the body," Cooks said. "This is a very serious crash. The suspect believing he hit a deer – certainly, that was not the case. We’re not exactly sure how he ended up in our city. Based upon surveillance video, we believe he actually arrived in our city at around 8 p.m."
White Settlement police detained Lujan Flores on Saturday night on pending charges for intoxication manslaughter and possibly failure to stop and render aid, Cook said.
Records show that he was transferred and booked into the Dallas County Jail at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, December 19, on a charge of collision involving death. He is being held on a bond of $500,000, according to records.
Jail records also show officials have Lujan Flores on an ICE hold. WFAA is working to learn more about that information.
"It’s very frustrating," Cook said. "This scene was very hard for our teams, just to even work a case like this. Really, what the frustration for our team is, is these are avoidable. People do not need to get behind the wheel. We talk about it all the time. Make good decisions. There’s rideshare services, friends. There’s just other things you can do besides getting behind the wheel. When you’re impaired to this level where you hit a pedestrian on the road, and you think it’s an animal? That’s a significant impairment. In all my 28 years [on the job], I have never really worked a case like this. Very unusual case. But it was obvious when we made contact with the suspect, he had no idea where he was at."
Lujan Flores was previously arrested on a driving while intoxicated charge in Plano in 2020. According to Plano police, blood work pulled at the time of his arrest for that incident showed that his blood alcohol level was at .14 -- almost double the legal limit.
Tarrant County law enforcement reminded drivers Monday that they always increase DWI patrols ahead of the December holidays.
“If those chuckleheads go out, and they drink and they drive, we will be waiting on them with force," said Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn.
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